Needing Rain and Armadillos!

We really, really, really need rain right now in Oklahoma! Did I mention we really need rain! Oh we do!  I am so tired of dragging around hoses and setting up and taking down watering systems.  The birds are so very happy when I set up the sprinkling system around the yard so they can get a much needed bath.  It hasn't helped that the average temperature for the past fifteen or so days has been over 100 degrees!
Yesterday, we finally got that good soaking that we have so desperately needed and boy I am glad!  Now I won't have to water for a few days at least.

My hummingbirds are not faring well either.  It seems they are in the middle of congregating here in Oklahoma until they leave in October or so.  They are draining my two feeders about every other day.  I usually don't have that many hummingbirds, I have about six normally.  Today, I counted between twelve and fifteen.  Those poor little guys are hot, tired and drinking up a storm!

Last night, as I was making my rounds in the garden, I had quite a start.  My big, black german shephard, Kate, and I heard a snort in the woods behind the garden.  We had apparently spooked a deer and it was giving us a warning not to come any closer!  Suddenly, my dog, who had been poking around in the gourds looking for bugs was standing in front of me guarding me from the snorting!  I started to calmly talk to the unseen deer and it eventually snorted off deeper into the woods.  Kate was really excited that she had scared that mean, old deer away from her mistress!

As I picked tomatoes and okra, I noticed that my garden had been visited by a pesky armadillo! This creature had dug up my eggplant, my baby swiss chard and several peppers!  Luckily, it was cooler today, only  91d egrees, I think the plants survived.  I rewatered them and spoke quite firmly to my dear dog, Kate about guarding the garden all the time, not just when I was in it!  Time will tell if she really heard me or if she was just looking at me with those big, brown eyes!